Pre departure Skincare

Not many people have perfect skin and I'm definitely no exception. I have a lot of trouble with acne scarring and quite often I have surprise breakouts along my chin. Because I'm so pale I'm always left with horrid red scars that last quite a long time. I've put together a skincare regime before we leave so I can calm down my face so I don't have to think about it so much. The problem is that I have very sensitive skin but it's also very oily. I always prefer natural product with talcs or parabens but there isn't a huge range in my home town so most of my favourite products have come to me through beauty samplers like Lust Have It.

From start to finish here are some of my favourite products all working together for clearer skin. Remembering of course, that all skin types are different and what works for me may not work for others.

Neutrogena Naturals
Fresh cleansing + Makeup remover

  I cannot go a day without washing my face with a proper cleanser. I use this twice a day as my go to face wash both morning and night. I'll admit, I'm pretty lazy and don't take off my makeup before going for a shower and I have noticed that quite a lot of other cleansers will not clean off makeup as well as this one. I'm usually left with panda eyes from waterproof mascara and kohl eyeliner but not with this cleanser.
I like the idea of 86% naturally derived ingredients. As I'm getting older I'm a lot more mindful about what I'm putting on my face and what is being absorbed by my skin. I also understand though that sometimes products need more than just minerals and extracts.
I'd totally recommend this to anyone trying to move away from harsh cleansers and scrubs. The scent is something citrus crossed with ... plants? Grass maybe?? I'm not sure how to describe it. It's a great fresh scent though. It always leaves my skin feeling clean but still moisturised.

Ocean Essence
Crystal Microdermabrasion

Twice a week (or maybe 3 times depending on how hot it's been) I give myself a good ol' exfoliating. I received this in a recent LHI box and love it. Very fine crystal particles suspended in a lightweight cleanser that seems to be a cross between a gel and a cream. It has a nice "tropical" fragrance, apparently, although I think it just smells nice. I use this one sparingly and only press lightly because I have found that it can do more harm than good if you really go to town with a lot of force.
The Ocean Essence range is Australian made and most importantly to me no mineral oils, parabens or petro-chemicals. That's what I like to see. It also makes me feel like I'm having some amazing spa experience because they use real crystals in the formula. Luxury, definitely a bonus.

Paula's Choice
Anti-Redness Exfoliating Solution

I only use this after using the microdermabration solution. This is a great product for use after any facial scrub. It takes away the redness and soothes the skin. It contains 2% salicylic acid which I'm totally ok with as it kill the bacteria that cause acne. It looks, feels and smells just like water. I don't use this after regular cleansing because it can sometimes leave my skin feeling a little more oily than I would like it to be. After a deep cleanse and scrub though it's the best thing to calm down the skin. I have no red blotches at all after a few minutes. It claims to help improve pore texture and skin tone. I haven't really seen anything like that from this one but it does a great job either way.

Savi Australia
Organic Soothing Cream

 Ahhhhhh I absolutely love this product. Of all the things that have helped improve my skin this has probably been the most effective. This is Savi Australia's Organic Soothing Cream. Most of the ingredients are essential oils like Tea Tree, Evening Primrose, Rose hip, Sage, the list goes on. It also has other great things like Manuka Honey, Aloe Vera, Shea Butter and so forth. It's like all the most amazing natural ingredients were whipped up together and slapped in a jar. It does have a fairly strong scent, it's kind of a sagey, tee tree scent. Maybe not a good choice for those who can't stand scents.
If I have a big, red, angry pimple creep up on me in the night I apply this and the next day it'd pretty much gone. It relieves redness, possibly better than the Paula's Choice toner but I don't want use anything too harsh after exfoliating. I've even noticed my pores are looking smaller and I'm definitely seeing less blackheads but I also think it might be a combination of this and the others in the process.

Olay Complete Defence
Sensitive Skin

I have a love hate relationship with the Sun. I love that it keeps the world turning and allows us to live. I hate almost everything else about it. It's hot, it burns me, it causes me to sweat, it gives me freckles, it doesn't allow me to tan and repeat and with burning me. My skin has 2 tones: Pink and Red and given my options I like to keep it as pale pink as I can.
That's where Sunscreen comes in. I wear some kind of sunscreen any day I know I have to venture in the sun for any period of time.
I've finally found a face sunscreen/moisturiser that doesn't cause my skin to erupt after one application. I'm quite surprised that I found it in Olay. Usually I find their products to cause me to break out. I've been using this for almost a year now and so far so good. It's non greasy, fast absorbing and the 30+ SPF is as good as it gets here. The best thing about this is that I can wear it under any type of BB cream or powder without it separating or flaking.

Alite Rejuvenating
Whitening Face Cream

If I know I'm not going out in the sun for the day i do my best to fix what the sun has done to my skin. This is an awesome whitening cream I received from my friend Kate (check out her blog!) in a beauty swap. Boy am I glad she didn't want this anymore haha! The combination of this cream and Savi's soothing cream has really helped my skin out recently.
Currently I've only found this sold directly from the manufacturer as it seems to only be available in New Zealand.
This is a strange cream. It's very thick and has a rosey scent. Normally I would stay far away from anything like this but after you apply this paste-like cream it amazingly changes texture to a matte finish and leaves my skin feeling moisturised but smooth and velvety. It has some great ingredients too, Rotorua Geothermal Mud, Manuka Honey, Licorice Extract, All sorts of great things. It definitely has helped with the clarity of my skin and most importantly cutting down sun damage.







Night time probably the best time for healing skin. There's no sun, the temperature is cooler, no activities to dirty your skin. I've only recently started using night specific creams and after going through a couple of bad choices I've found a goody.
Nivea's Pure & Natural Regenerating Night Cream. Once again, keen on the lack of baddies and full of goodies like Aloe Vera oil and Argan oil. It has a light texture that's more gel like than cream and a light fresh scent as well. This is my second time purchasing this and while using the first batch I didn't have any problems with breakouts or irritations.



Well that's it. That's what I've been using to get my skin under control before I leave the country and inevitably let it go crazy again haha!
I'd love to know what everyone else uses. What's your favourite cleanser or skin cream? Do you have a particular routine you like to do or change it up all the time?

Not long now until I go but still a few more things to get organised. I'm always leaving things to the last minute. Ooops.